We can review legalities, technical implications, and talk about limited licenses, rights to use, etc., but ultimately, I’m quite certain candidates believe it is actually they who own their resumes – not the agency with whom they interacted, or the company to whom they applied.

Well, guess again.

In the staffing world, corporate recruiters claim ownership of a resume that has entered it’s company’s Applicant Tracking System (“ATS”), cutting off all others’ rights to represent you. Similarly, the first contracted staffing vendor to submit your resume to a corporation generally wins ownership rights, irrespective of your actual desire to be represented by the company of your choice.

So what’s wrong with that?  Well, in theory, there’s nothing wrong with a company owning your resume. They process it, screen you, a hiring manager interviews you, and you get hired. But, what happens when the vendor submits you? Or – worse yet – the company-employee-friend-of-yours forwards your profile to their internal HR corporate staffing group in an attempt to garner the company referral bonus?  Well, now you learn firsthand the pitfalls of “ownership”. Here, the company can move forward. If HR tells its employee they have your resume in their system, no matter how it arrived there or how long ago, the employee will not earn her referral bonus. She’d be upset, as she knows perfectly well it was her referral that prompted any interviews. She knows this resume was sitting untouched in an un-mined ATS. You know you want this employee friend to “own” your resume – but the company says no. At this juncture, you really need not think more about this – as the process will halt without explanation and without recourse. No one will tell you why. The company will not be hiring you. For them, it is best to avoid the internal conflict, so best to avoid you.

The same scenario plays out with the agency who is presenting your resume to their client and your prospective employer. Though you have given this agency permission to be your advocate, and have little to no recollection of ever having submitted your profile to this company’s HR posse through other means, there is now a question of ownership. It’s best to avoid you altogether. Plus, you appear “overly shopped around”, and therefore less desirable.

So, what’s the solution? Heck if I know. I’m just here to turn your world upside down.

I love getting to know my clients!

In recent weeks I’ve spent time reviewing Vivo’s customer portfolio, understanding how these partnerships were created, and defining criteria and methodology by which to measure how well we are servicing each one. My favorite part of this discovery process – meeting our clients face to face.

Last week I joined our Managing Director for meetings and lunch with our client hiring managers at a Silicon Valley healthcare company. This group of senior IT professionals is particularly creative, driven, focused, and believe in the products their company develops. Now I do as well.

My CEO says that she and our clients have a lot in common: they think they’re interesting and she thinks they’re interesting. If you’ve met Vivo, you know this to be absolutely true. We are genuinely intrigued by the individuals and companies we do business with.

Sitting with our client stakeholders last week while openly discussing their business goals, strategies, culture, product, and candidate’s wish list, made me value the understanding of resource needs and how to deliver strategic solutions.  In addition, this company’s meaningful contribution to cancer research and treatment makes me personally invested in their success. Knowing why their interview cycle is so thorough, how they define good communication, where they set their expectations in regard to technical ability, and how individuals should behave in their environment tells me who I am looking for in the candidate pool. I can now translate job requirements to recruiters and candidates in a meaningful, dynamic way. Today, I feel a personal obligation to ensure any candidate I put before them or project deliverables I agree to, will absolutely meet their expectations. I want to help them succeed on their terms.

Now, I realize that we’re not always so fortunate, and that many companies’ VMS provider or their HR, or Procurement departments sit between us and the “client”. When that is the case, those individuals must be considered our clients in every way no matter who the ultimate client may be. The key today is that there can be several individuals representing different departments within a company who have hiring authority or are stakeholders in the staffing process. It makes the process of getting to know our customers a little more challenging. But, a great VMS program manager/ recruiter/ procurement department often knows his or her clients as well as we do. So, we broaden our network and enjoy more relationships with a variety of workforce management personalities. Here again, our common interest – we like their client, and they like their client – helps us build relationships with each member of the hiring chain.

This past weekend, Vivo was able to participate in the annual Capture the Dream- Adopt a Family program for the 2nd time. We were given a few weeks to shop for the necessities that the family needed and delivered the gifts to them in San Leandro. Even though only the mother of the family could attend yesterday’s gift giving, it was still an amazing experience to see the warm smile on her face as she opened a few gifts. Here are just a few photos to share.

This was such a wonderful experience and we can’t wait to help again next year. If you’d like to participate in Capture the Dream’s Adopt a Family, visit their website and “like” their Facebook Page to stay updated on the most recent events that you can get involved in!

Our very own employee, Judy Tang just completed her first half marathon, the Big Sur in Monterey Bay.  However, if you are looking to start small, try out a Turkey Trot that has the option of a 10k or 5k run this Thanksgiving!

Some staff will be participating in Silicon Valley’s 2011 Turkey Trot in San Jose, but you can get involved yourself by signing up today at a local Turkey Trot near you by visiting www.active.com.  Search: Turkey Trot.

Thank you City of Pleasanton for the kind letter.   We are lucky to be a part of this warm and welcoming community.

This past month, I crossed over to the dark side. I went from being the fox to the hen – from the “hall monitor” to the unruly 3^rd grader. Yes, I’ve gone from Vendor Management to Vendor.

Please check back as I reveal what I learn.  I’m excited about this new partnership and helping to expand Vivo’s relationships with our Vendor Managers and Vendor Management Systems. Our CEO, Marilyn Weinstein, says I spend all my time apologizing for their (former!) going-around-the-system ways. In truth, I think I spend my time building bridges and helping us and “them” work toward common goals that benefit client-VMS-agencies in a comprehensive fashion. There IS a circle of life in this process. I believe that if we can value the role one another plays as a symbiotic relationship, then everyone’s business flourishes.

Level the Playing Field.

When I traded in my Vendor Management uniform for a staffing team jersey, I made a switch from umpire to batter-up. I am no longer responsible for enforcing game rules or calling out strikes and fouls on my staffing vendors. From my new vantage point on the field, competing with other experienced agencies, I’m content on positioning myself well at the home plate, making a good play, and hitting a home run candidate hire! I enjoy the competition and I love the game…. Though as a hitter, while rounding the bases, what I find challenging is that we’re not on an even playing field.

This is where I see the issue: whilst IT hiring managers report to their own internal businesses and simply need their project/product staff augmentation needs met; Vivo can diligently provide those resources. The same client, though, has a procurement and/or HR organization that has put a VMS program in place that is designed to meet the client’s over-arching business goals. While it appears easy enough to align individual hiring manager needs with the company-wide workforce management objectives, it rarely is. We all know that within a mid to large corporation there can be an “us versus them” attitude between departments or business, and IT has a reputation for fostering that mindset. It can feel as though we’re a supplier trying to touch all the bases for the hiring manager depending on us without a VMS yelling “you’re out!” mid-way through our sprint.

My CEO is happy to play by all the VMS rules and hired me, in part, to ensure we’re able to do that. The frustration occurs when we become the only supplier working through the VMS while our competitors happily avoid the defined process and see success as a result. What occurs is this: Vivo accepts the system-generated requisition, submits candidates, and communicates with the VMS on-site. Competitors are aware of the reqs and go directly to the hiring managers for a direct fill. At this point the hiring manager pressures the VMS into accepting the pre-identified competitor candidate and awards the rogue vendor a contract and placement. In this scenario, Vivo plays by the rules not knowing the umpire is facilitating a whole other ballgame at the same time. Again, the manager only wants the job filled for his/her IT organization. The VMS reports to procurement or HR and has to capture the req, spend, and headcount. Vivo may follow the VMS rules, but the ultimate hire decision comes from Ms. Manager who may get the req in the VMS system at some point, but enjoys the trusted relationship s/he has with an agency. This leaves me in an odd position. Shall I stick with the VMS and hope that they and their procurement/HR sponsors can force all req’s to be competitively bid through their system? Or should I make sure I foster my own manager relationships with the client knowing those few direct placements are better than none, even if it means annoying the VMS? Where the VMS and client end users have differing agendas, how can we level the playing field and promote true competition for placements?

Tune in to find the answers to these questions in my next blog.

Thanks to Audi for letting us partake in such an exciting, amazing event where 1,600 participants, together raised more than $4.5 Million for Best Buddies Programs; creating friendships, job opportunities and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Vivo’s Business Development Manager, Sandra Brown knew her son-in-law was impressive, but the rest of us (mere humans) struggled to understand exactly what Jesse Anderson’s greatness entailed– until now.

So, perhaps (and if you’re a Vivo fan, this may be more likely than not?) you are actually familiar with the age-old adage, “give 1 million monkeys 1 million typewriters and they’ll eventually type the entire works of William Shakespeare”. Well, if you’re like us (pre-Sandra), you heard it, but assumed since you didn’t know 1 million monkeys, there was little reason to argue against this important supposition in the world of probabilities. Until now.

It seems, our very own Sandra has been hiding her genius son-in-law and hadoop programmer, who has used Hadoop to (virutally) recreate the Infinite Monkey Theorem.  And, none of us would have understood our (grasping here) fifteen minutes of fame, if not for the publicity Jesse has been generating.

International news organizations like CNN and others, have been covering those darned monkeys — and Jesse — around the clock.

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-09-26/tech/tech_web_monkeys-typewriters-shakespeare_1_monkeys-typing-primates?_s=PM:TECH

Now, it’s important to note Jesse’s humble roots, so that each of us can find our own source of inspiration, should the moment hit us.  Jesse found his inspiration from a random “The Simpsons” episode, in which Mr. Burns chains up 1,000 monkeys, giving them the task of writing a great novel and berating one of them for typing, “It was the best of times. It was the blurst of times.”

Jesse’s monkeys have already penned far better than Burns’ monkeys, and are on their way to completing many more impressive works before they’re done. Until his monkeys are done, we’d like to raise a glass — or a banana – to toast to Jesse, his monkeys, and to Sandra who is enjoying her family’s time in the spot light. Well-done!